


i'm ready to fly, uncover the light

by ashintuku



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Luke-centric, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-19
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-05-21 21:53:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6059422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashintuku/pseuds/ashintuku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You should head towards the shelters. It's going to rain." </p><p>"Rain?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	i'm ready to fly, uncover the light

The grass was soft beneath his fingers, spongy under flesh and sliding through the gaps in steel. The wind, sharp and cold, beat against his face; the ocean far below crashed against the rocks of the crumbling Temple. 

Luke remember Old Ben, sitting in a hutch in the rock and sand; remembered him sitting out on the roof of his home early in the mornings, pale skin burning red and beard bleaching white, aging him faster and faster. Remembered that Old Ben was older than he should have been, and still died too soon. 

Something behind him fell, and Luke tilted his head as Rey scrambled back to her feet; muttering curses in alien languages she had picked up through a port-childhood. He lifted his metal hand, holding it up to the sky; listened to the wind whistle through it, and thought of short-circuiting fathers and the echo-memory of a crying woman he never knew. 

He stared up at the sky and the grey clouds and sighed. 

"Rey," he called out, and Rey immediately stopped muttering her curses. He turned to look at her, and she was standing in the empty patch of grass behind him, face sweat-shiny and hair a loose tangle of knots. He stood slowly, feeling his bones creak and crack from tiredness and age. 

(He was older than he should have been.) 

"You should head towards the shelters. It's going to rain." 

"Rain?" 

Luke paused, stared at Rey seriously for a moment; remembered that Jakku was Tatooine's twin in all but suns and solar system. Remembered that Rey had probably never seen rain in all of her life; buying water overpriced from moisture farmers, dunking her face into dirty watering holes manufactured for labour animals to wash the grime away. 

He had been twenty the first time he had ever seen rain, on a planet far from his home and the burning remains of a childhood taken for granted. It had caught him by surprise; he and Han and Leia. Leia had groaned and lifted her jacket over her head to protect herself, and Han had exclaimed something about their terrible luck. 

But Luke had frozen, staring at the water as it fell over his skin as casually as sandstorms. His hair plastered to his forehead, the rain slick and cold running down his neck and under his shirt, sticking his clothes close to him. When he had tasted the puddle in his palms, it had tasted _fresh_ and _cold_ and he had laughed. 

Leia's eyes had softened as she understood all at once; Han stopped complaining and walked out to stand with Luke as he laughed and cried in the rain, holding his hands stretched wide. 

(Han had eventually dropped his coat over Luke's head, called him a nerf herder, and dragged him towards shelter. Luke had been sick for a week, and he hadn't complained, not once, and every time it rained he stopped and tilted his face towards the sky, and Leia and Han watched him, fond and sad and loving.) 

Now, Luke walked to Rey, touching her shoulder before pointing towards the sky. 

"See the clouds?" 

"Yes," Rey breathed, and he knew it was because clouds were as non-existent as rain on desert wastelands, and he smiled. "Yes, I see them. What about them?" 

Luke breathed in deep; smelled the water, tasted the storm, and he grinned. "Wait." 

"For what?" 

"Patience, Rey. Wait." 

She pouted, and he smiled, and the stood and looked towards the sky as the clouds rolled in towards them, rumbling promises. Rey tensed as the rumbling grew louder and louder, looking ready to bolt at the first notice; the only thing keeping her grounded was Luke's hand on her shoulder, and he squeezed it reassuringly. 

He closed his eyes as finally, _finally_ , the skies opened up and rain came down in a torrential downpour. 

(It was one of the reasons he had stayed on Ahch-To, the rain. If he couldn't have Han or Leia, family or friends or love or life, he would have _rain_. He would have rain, and he would remember it all, and it would keep him moving.) 

Rey gasped, loud and high, and Luke turned to see her staring wide-eyed up at the sky as if she had never seen it before. And she never had, not like this; not grey and pouring water out as casually as sandstorms. He let go of her shoulder, and she stepped away from him. 

Luke watched as she reached her hands up to the sky, shivering as water slid slick down her skin and clung onto her clothes and plastered her hair against her face and neck. Her eyes were overbright, and tears mixed with rain, and she was smiling so widely that her face was surely aching. 

She started laughing. Laughing, shoulders shaking, hands cupped together and watching as water pooled in her palms before she tipped her head back and _drank_ , and she gasped again, and laughed again, twisting to Luke and staring at him. 

" _Rain_?" 

Luke smiled, and for a second he felt more like a young man than an old one, and he carefully removed his cloak, walking over to Rey and draping it over her head and shoulders. She reached up to hold onto it automatically, watching as Luke tilted his head back and sighed. 

"Yes." 

They stood quietly for a minute, before Luke heard Rey move, and the cloak was over his head, too. He looked down at her, and she gave him a little, hopeful smile; a child looking for approval. 

He reached up to help hold the cloak over the two of them, and she reached out and took his hand and squeezed it; and together two desert orphans enjoyed the rain.

**Author's Note:**

> Your typical 'desert children bonding over rain' fic.


End file.
